Ayan woke up because of silence.
Not the peaceful kind.
Not the comfortable kind
It was the kind of silence that felt… wrong.
No birds.
No cars.
No distant horns, no street vendors shouting, no sound of footsteps from the apartment upstairs. Even the ceiling fan above his head felt louder than it should, cutting the air with a dull, repetitive hum.
He opened his eyes slowly.
The first thing he noticed was the light.
Morning sunlight was pouring through his window, painting the wall in soft orange. For a moment, everything felt normal. Too normal.
He checked his phone.
9:47 AM.
"Crap…" he muttered and sat up. He had slept too much. Again.
He grabbed his phone to check notifications.
No missed calls.
No messages.
No spam.
No internet.
The signal bar showed No Service.
Ayan frowned.
"Great. Of course."
He stood up, stretched, and walked to the window.
That's when his heart skipped.
The street outside was empty.
Not "few people" empty.
Completely. Unnaturally. Terrifyingly empty.
No cars.
No buses.
No rickshaws.
No dogs.
No people.
Even the small grocery shop across the street was open… but there was no one inside.
The door was just hanging there, slightly open, moving back and forth in the wind.
Ayan felt a strange cold crawl up his spine.
"This is… weird."
He quickly changed clothes and rushed out of his room.
His apartment.
Every door was closed. Some were half open.
He knocked on the door of the old couple next to his flat.
No answer.
He knocked again.
Harder.
Nothing.
He tried the handle.
It was unlocked.
He slowly pushed the door open.
Inside, everything was… normal.
TV still on.
Breakfast on the table.
Two plates.
Food untouched.
No people.
His breathing became faster.
"Hello?" his voice echoed.
No response.
He ran.
Door to door.
Room to room.
No one.
Not in the building.
Not in the street.
Not anywhere.
The city was dead.
But not destroyed.
Just… abandoned.
He ran outside.
The road was filled with silent cars. Some stopped in the middle of the street. Some had doors open.
A bus stood near the crossing.
Empty.
Ayan's chest felt tight.
"This… isn't possible."
He took out his phone again.
Still no network.
No internet.
No GPS.
Nothing.
He tried calling emergency.
No connection.
He started walking.
Then running.
He ran for almost an hour.
Hospitals.
Police station.
Market.
School.
Railway station.
Empty. Everything was empty.
No bodies.
No blood.
No signs of struggle.
Just… disappearance.
Like the world had been erased.
He sat down on the stairs of a mall, breathing heavily.
His hands were shaking.
"What the hell is happening…?"
That's when he noticed something strange.
A sound.
Not from the air.
Not from the ground.
From inside his head.
A soft, distant… humming.
Like a machine.
Or a signal.
Then—
FLASH.
For a split second, the world… glitched
The sky flickered.
The buildings around him distorted like a broken screen.
Then everything went back to normal.
Ayan froze.
"…I'm not dreaming."
He touched his face.
Felt pain
Felt real.
Then his phone vibrated.
He almost dropped it.
On the screen, there was only one message.
From an unknown sender.
"YOU ARE NOT ALONE. YOU ARE JUST IN THE WRONG WORLD."
His heart started pounding.
Before he could type anything—
Another message came.
"THEY DIDN'T DIE. THEY WERE MOVED."
"AND YOU WERE NOT SUPPOSED TO WAKE UP."
The humming in his head grew louder.
And then…
The world went dark.